Whale Partners with Secoda to Deliver Compliance-Aware Secure Remote Access.
Fort Lee, NJ, April 26 2005 – Whale Communications, the leading enterprise-class SSL VPN provider, today announced that it has partnered with compliance and policy management specialists, Secoda Risk Management, to deliver a joint solution that forges the missing link between corporate policy awareness and auditable secure remote access. This is the first SSL VPN solution that does more than report on regulatory compliance by actually enabling enforcement. Enterprises now have a practical tool to ensure that remote workers – employees and partners – must comply with corporate security policies before they can access the corporate network or use applications remotely.
In the current regulatory environment, companies need to be vigilant and demonstrate adherence to best practices such as the U.S.’s Sarbanes-Oxley and Europe’s risk management Basel II Accord. At the same time, enterprises have been increasingly moving towards remote working and the adoption of SSL VPNs as a convenient and cost-effective method to deliver remote access to employees, partners and customers from any web-connected browser. Adoption in the SSL VPN market has been considerable and continues to grow steadily. Research firm Datamonitor estimates that the global market will grow to $1bn in 2007. Synergy Research suggests that SSL VPN sales will increase 184% year-over-year, with worldwide sales growing at around 20% pa in the period 2005-2010, reaching the range $900m to $950m.
“The biggest threat to businesses as they increasingly enable their employees to work remotely is the behavior of those employees, accidentally or intentionally, leaving their IT infrastructure open to the outside world. This approach ensures that everyone accessing an organization’s applications is authorized and that their understanding of the procedures affecting them can be controlled and monitored, providing an audit trail that can be used to check and modify employee behavior,” said Bob Tarzey, Service Director, analyst firm Quocirca Ltd.
Tight integration between Whale’s e-GapΠSSL VPN and Secoda’s RuleSafeT, provides an end-to-end solution for online management and enforcement of both awareness and acceptance of corporate policies. In practice what this means is that if companies so desire, they now have the ability to block remote users from accessing their applications and information remotely until these users have signalled understanding and acceptance of corporate policies and regulations. Workers can enjoy the benefits of efficient and secure remote access at the same time as knowing they are adhering to corporate security policies. The joint solution provides clear visibility of the current level of compliance within an organization.
“Regulatory issues are placing an increasing burden on businesses, which are seeking to go about their daily work effectively while complying with emerging standards and regulations. Through this joint solution, we are offering companies access to an effective compliance-aware front end that eases this burden and at the same time improves their business performance,” said Daniel Steiner, Whale’s President.
“By adding our policy management engine to Whale’s SSL VPN we are securing a loop hole in companies’ compliance management. By carrying out gap analysis and ensuring policy understanding and acceptance by all users across the VPN, companies can reduce vulnerability. Information security officers can now demonstrate effective security management to executive management, customers, suppliers and auditors,” said Adrian Wright, Managing Director of Secoda Risk Management. “In addition, working with Whale will provide us with a global route to market, and help to increase our visibility with the reseller channel.”
Whale will demonstrate the solution, which is currently available, at the London-based Infosecurity Europe show on Tuesday, April 26th, booth 372.
About Whale Communications
Whale Communications is the leading enterprise-class SSL VPN vendor, enabling companies to provide employees, business partners and customers secure access to corporate data and applications from any web browser. Named a leader, visionary and tier-one SSL VPN player by major analysts such as Gartner, META Group, Forrester and Frost & Sullivan, Whale’s SSL VPN products have also won numerous industry awards such as Network Computing magazine’s Best SSL VPN for 2004. Its solutions have been securing enterprises worldwide since it was founded in 1998. Privately held, Whale is funded by prominent venture firms and industry leaders, including Goldman Sachs, Soros Private Equity Partners and the BRM Group, the founding investor of Check Point Software Technologies. The company is headquartered in Fort Lee, New Jersey and has international offices in Israel, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Whale Communications, e-Gap, Application Aware, Attachment Wiper, Whale and the Whale logo are trademarks of Whale Communications Ltd. All other trademarks are property of their respective holders. For more information about Whale visit: www.whalecommunications.com.
Aimee Rhodes
e-mail: aimee@whale-com.com
201-947-9177 ext. 1528